Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-05-01
THE COOLEST COUNTRY.
WHAT LIEUT.. SCHEUTZE SAYS OF
THE LENA DELTA COUNTRY.

THE LENA DELTA COUNTRY.
How the Yakuts Manage to Keep Warm
in Northwestern Siberia.-Huts and
Their Filthiness-Food and Clothing.
Eating Butter.
Lieut.. w. H. Scheutze, Of the navy, who
was sent to the Lena delta in northwestern
Siberia to deliver to the natives gifts from
the government OF the United States to repay
them for the aid they rendered him in his
search for the missing members Of the jean
nette party, says in his report that the town
of Veroyusk, Siberia, II the coolest inhabited
spot in the world. The thermometer stood at
eighty-six below zero when he was there, and
he saws it seldom goes above fifty below. I
asked him the other day what the people did
who lived at this blissful spot; what they had
to eat and how they liked it,
@Why,n he replied, "they think it is pretty
good sort of climate Home, Sweet Home
is the song all the world over, and if the YER
ovuskers should come here they would won
der what people did where it is so Internally
hot They would smother in this climate,
and pine for a stiff northwesterly arctic gale.
1t is wonderful the amount of cold human
flesh can endure. The natives of Terra del
Fuego go stark naked the year round, and in
their country it freezes every night 1t Is
much colder in the Lena delta, yet the peo-
pie manage to keep comfortable, and more
die of smallpox and scurvy than from the
effects of the intense cold You seldom hear
Of any one freezing to death, and then it IS
those only who expose themselves l1npru-
IDENTIFY who die in that way. More people
are frozen to death in the United States than
in Siberia.
HOW TO KEEP WARN.
GBut how do they manage to keep warm"
"Well, in the first place the Yakuts are an
enduring race and arc born in that climate.
Then they dress in furs, and have learned
from their ancestors, or from their own e1-
perience, how to keep warm. Their houses
are built Of logs s,neared over on the outside
and inside with manure and mud. In each
cabin is q large fireplace, which Is used for
both heating and cooking. There is seldom
more than one room in these cabins, and
usually the owners cattle, If he has any, oc-
cupy one end Of the room in which he lives,
being tied, or prevented from trampilng on
the babies by a bar. The houses are COM
monty very comfortable, but are awfully
dirty, and smell-there Is no word to describe
it. Often, until I got used to 1t, would
rather lie down in tho snow outside, with the
thermometer fifty below zero, than sleep In
one Of these huts. But you've no idea what
q man can stand when he has to"
"Havo they windows in their houses?"
eyes; ice windows. They use ice as we use
glass A clear piece is selected, about five OF
six inches thick, norticed in the window
opening in blocks two feet, and sometimes as
large as four feet square, and with water Is
made solid. The water is IS good os putty.
When the window becomes dirty they scrape
it Off with q knife, and when it has been
scraped thin they substitute new pane"
doesn't the window ever melta"
@Bless you, no; it is freezing cold that far
from the fire. Ii the room ever got warm
enough to melt the ice the 4aAut couldn't
live in it, and would have to go out doors to
cool off. At night the fire is allowed to go
out, as they have to economic in fuel All
they have is drift wood, gathered on the banks
Of the Lena river in the summer time"
allow do they sleepa Do they undress when
they so to beds"
always They strip to their shirts, which
are made of q thick sort Of Russian cloth os
heavy as our canvas. The men and women
wear the same kind of garments, and never
have more than one at q time. l took up
lot Of thick flannel for them, enough to last
the rest Of their lives, and it will be great
deal moro comfortable than the native stuff,
although they don't like it at first. When
they undress they get into hunks built IN the
side of the house-sometinles man, his
wife and all his children in the same bunk.
They have reindeer skins under and over
them. and curtains of the same hanging be-
fore the hunks. The last man or woman TO
undress hangs NIL the clothing of the rest
out doors over @ pole that Is kept for the
purpose"
GETTING RID OF vERMIN
aWhat is that fors"
"To freeze the lice. They couldn't live II
they didn't do it, and it has become national
custom The lice get into tho fur and that
Is the only way to get them out BY hang
ing their clothes over the pols every night
they can keep reasonably free from them, but
the fur fills up again the next day"
"Do they ever batheF"
aNever in their lives; they haven't any
word for bathing in their language, and the
impossibility of keeping clean is one OF tho
greatest haIdships Of Arctic life"
"What do they eata"
"Reindeer meat, beef-they have COWS,
queer looking animals, about half as large as
ours. with hummock ON their backs like
camel-flsh, bread made Of black rye flour,
tea. and imported food made Of chopped beef
rolled into balls about tho size OF q marble,
and covered with dough. These they pound
up and make into soup. Then there Is WOOD
that is very nutritious when 1t Is ground up
and boiled. Mixed with reindeer meat It
makes good soup They often eat their fish
raw. OF course they freeze solid as soon
as they are taken out Of tho water, and
the native, particularly II he is on the
road, cuts them of in shaviugs as thin as our
chipped beef and eats them raw. They are
palatable, and have lived for days at q time
on them, with a cup Of tea made over an al
cohol lamp by way Of variety. The greatest
luxury they have is butter, and they will eat
it by the pound as our people eat CONNECTION
cry. A poor sort Of butter is made from the
milk of the native COW, that looks and tastes
more ike cheese. and they prize it above all
other classes Of food"
@The amount of butter O native will eat
when he can get it," continued Lieut.
Scheutze, ais astonishing. A friend OK mine
In Siberia told me Of man who ate thirty
six pounds in one day, and then didn't get all
he wanted. They have q way OF pounding
up a red berry and mixing it with butter,
which gives it beautiful pink tint and inn
proves the flavor. Their drink is the Russian
vodka, almost pure alcohol, and they Will
trade their shirts for it The liquor Is scarce
and expensive, SO they are necessarily tenn
perate people. Percy Drunmond In Chicago
Inter Ocean